We're Watching
What can you do if you witness abusive policing or illegal immigration enforcement? Documenting the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is legal and protected by the Constitution. You can support the safety of your loved ones and communities by deterring, de-escalating, and documenting law enforcement violence and misconduct.
Discriminatory and abusive policing in New York City remains a serious problem that disproportionately impacts marginalized communities, particularly Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities. Many New Yorkers are unsure what to do if they witness abusive policing or illegal immigration enforcement, and how they can help.
CUP collaborated with the Justice Committee and designer Jade Broomfield to create We’re Watching. The bilingual English/Spanish booklet explains your rights and best practices for documenting law enforcement. The booklet breaks down step by step how to document the police and ICE and also includes tips on how to assess if it’s safe to document. Justice Committee also created an additional handout in both English and Spanish that goes deeper into the risks of Cop and ICE Watching for those who are not US citizens.
With this information, marginalized communities most impacted by policing, can support community safety by deterring, de-escalating and documenting law enforcement violence and misconduct. We’re Watching launched at an ICE and Cop Watch training hosted by the Justice Committee in 2019 and has been distributed to thousands of community members throughout the city.
Check out the Project
The cover and a spread from We're Watching
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Project Collaborators
Community Partner
Justice Committee
Juan Ramon Aguirre
Varun Bhatnagar
Karina Hurtado-Ocampo
Amir Khafagy
Yul-san Liem
Designer
Jade Broomfield
Special Thanks
Irina Vinnitskaya, Christine Gaspar
Product Details
3.5″ × 5.5″ stapled booklet, 12 pages
Funding Support
Support for this project was provided by the New York Community Trust. Additional support for the Public Access Design program was provided by the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.